Thermal shape fluctuations of fluid-phase phospholipid-bilayer membranes and vesicles

After an introductory review of the physics of lipid-bilayer self-assembly, we discuss the origins of the area-difference elasticity model, a Landau-like theory which describes the mesoscale shape mechanics of bilayer sheets and vesicles. We introduce the notion of a phase diagram for mechanically stable low-energy vesicle shapes. We summarize what is now known about these shapes and about the transitions between them induced by changing control parameters, especially emphasizing the importance of metastability. In a final section devoted to recent work on thermal fluctuations, we outline a program for calculating normal mode energies and eigenshapes. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science B.V.